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Sunday, September 29, 2013

I know this is supposed to be silent, but I had to add this- throughout the garden we kept hearing weird sounds, crickets, chanting, even the sounds of women moaning.....and we were like, "What the HECK?" after seeing the musuem, I googled it and found that we'd stumbled upon a temporary accompanying exhibit by Erik Samakh- to recapture our experience, listen to this link, it's amazing!

Friday, September 27, 2013

One reason I've been so absent in Bloglandia the last few months is because Bill and I have been catching up on a lot of ongoing projects. To backtrack a bit, last Spring, we had a HUGE Hemlock tree in our
front yard taken down. It broke my heart to see it go- it had been the
original owners Christmas tree in 1960something, and it felt wrong to
remove it. BUT it also felt wrong to let it hit our house and it had
been leaning more and more towards us with each passing season. So we
took it down. Have you ever noticed that the solution to one problem,
occasionally creates another?

See how the hemlock screens the middle of the house?

Once we took the tree down, the sun porch was visible from the street, REALLY visible with all the crap that my family (and myself) had gotten into the habit of dumping there- everyone's coats, scarves, mittens and umbrellas plus assorted shoes and lots, LOTS more! HOW embarrasing! This led to series of projects, starting with landscaping the front of the porch to mask the (really ugly) vinyl siding (the porch is the only part of the house that's not clapboard siding) I planted some George Tabor azaleas and hydrangeas to build out the space....of course, we now get too much sun for hydrangeas there, but I've been babying them all season and I think they'll be OK. I do LOVE me some hydrangeas!

So here is the front "after" shot. I also planted climbing roses on either side of the sun porch to train up and across the top of the windows to soften them a bit- I want a mini pergola across top for Christmas ;) they're really not bad windows, just not my favorite style......Our eventual plan is to have NO grass in the front, just perennials, paths and sitting areas....more on that later :)
Of course all of this led to us (well me) deciding to make it into a real sun porch with ferns and pretty wicker and a ceiling fan......and a sky blue ceiling. I have such a wonderful family who loves me enough to donate pretty things to my causes, so really our only expense was paint and the time to get it all done! My Dad donated the ceiling fan and his girlfriend Kathy gave me the vintage wicker furniture for my birthday. My Mom gave me some pretty tables and shelves and from there, it all came together.....it's now one on my favorite rooms in my house!

So, there's one project from this Summer shared.....we also gutted and redid the main bathroom and a bunch of small garden projects. I'll share that later.
Have a wonderful weekend!
xx
Stephanie

Thursday, September 26, 2013

After posting yesterday, I added the sunburst of orange and yellow- I'll admit to cheating just a bit with a smidge of magenta. I couldn't help it, it was screaming to be included! So here you go, Maggie's pages of grey, orange and yellow (plus magenta ;-))

I thought about adding more words to the sunburst, but it's always those decisions that cause my pieces to be overkill- I decided to leave it the way it is, and (hopefully) let it "shine" as it!

I'm in the process of putting together some posts covering the rest of my Paris trip, my garden and all the (many) home projects we've been doing the last few months.....patience! I AM slowly coming back, I promise!
xx
Stephanie

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

It's nearing the end of the month and that means time to get my current pages wrapped up for the traveling journal project. This month, I have Maggie's beauty celebrating grays, yellows and oranges. So, I decided to revisit an old friend of mine; the pencil.....that led to drawing a lady, backed by a flower.

I always forget how much I LOVE drawing until I pick up my pencils- I have been having SO much fun with this! To add in the orange part of my task, I'll be doing a cut out to give her a warm background and add a splash of color to her cheek. And then, this little lady will be on her way for Gemma to add the final pages. That's right, one month left and all the journals begin their homeward journey. Can't wait!